Use of Internet

                I think now a days internet is great source of material which will be required for D.N.B students. As we all know pathology is very vast field and we are supposed to know lot of things. But internet made it easy.. you can achive lot of things like just from downloading the books, to digitil pathology slides, seminars, power point presentations, telepathology slides, leactures etc in each subspeciality of pathology.

                 So what we have to do is from this huge collection we have to pick the selective things from the internet and save them in one file so that we can read those things,listen to the lectures,or watch the slides of our intrest and which are usefull for our examination.

                 Like for example, Robbins is must read book but sometimes you don't feel like reading and you feel like somebody should teach us like they use to in our undergraduation. So here you go...

http://www.medicalschoolpathology.com/PPTsLEC.htm

These are lectures on General Pathology by Dr.John Minarcik and they are really useful for theory as well as practical preparation. So like this you can keep adding to this links like this and just keep revising the stuff and try to find the answers.

Got Some Old Theory Papers.

                 Today when I was serching my files I got some old question papers. I am adding these papers so that you can add them in your question bank. As you go on preparing answers to the more and more questions you will notice that the some questions are asked again and again so focus on those topics and prepare them very well.

December 2004
 
Paper I

 1.Morphologic variants of papaillary carcinoma thyroid, diagnosis pitfalls &significance
 2.Role of immunofluorescence in diagnosis of Gastro-intestinal tract related lesions
 3.Latest classification of NHL and various immunological markers in its diagnosis
 4.MALTomas
 5.prostate and PIN
 6.Bullous lesions of skin an dpattern of immunofluorescence in its diagnosis
 7.Chondroid lesions of bone
 8.Role of stains and ancillary techniques in diagnosis of malignant round cell tumors
 9.Immunological mechanisms in glomerular injury
10.Genetic basis of colorectal cancers

  Paper II

1.Current concepts in pathology of anaemia of chronic diseases
2. Biological basis and indications of stem cell transplantation
3.regulation of apoptosis in normal hemopoisis and hematological disorders
4.Prognosic factors in multiple myeloma
5.Cytogenetics in hematological disorders
6.Inherited giant platelet disorders
7.Plasma factor VII a
8.PNH recent concepts and diagnosis
9.Hemophagocytic syndromes
10.Importance of antibody screening in blood transfusion
 
Paper III
1.Hybrid capture assay in HPV assay
2.Role of perotonial wash cytology in diagnosis of malignancy
3.Role of cytology in testicular aspirates
4.Role of conjunctional scrape cytology in viral infections and occupational disease
5.Bethesda system
6.Lab diagnosis of diabetes mellitus
7.PAPNET
8.Role of various imaging techniques in guided aspirates of cytology of abdominal lesions
9.Radiation changes in cervical smears
10.Role of FNAC in salivary gland tumors
 
Paper IV
1.Classify and enumerate various types of intermediate filament proteins with special reference to newly discovered ones. Write in detail about the disesses related to its mutations
2.Describe prion proteins and its metabolism, significance in health and disease
3.Immune diseases due to macrophage dysfunction
4.Inherited cancer syndromes
5.Antoigen retrival techniques in IHC
6.Heat shock proteins
7.Mechanisms of cell death in radiation injury
8.Adhesion molecules in inflammation
9.Systemic mast cell diseases

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 2003
Paper I

1.Principles of artificial neural networks and its applications
2.Role of hormones in bone formation and resorption. New variant of Creutzfeldt Jacob disease
3.Variants of papillary carcinoma
4.Pathology of drug induced changes in female genital tract.
5.Pathogenesis of colorectal carcinoma.
6.Pre-malignant lesions of breast.
7.Neuro-endocrine tumors of lung
8.Primary biliary cirrhosis
9.Classification of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
 
Paper II
1.Hemoglobin electrophoresis in hemolytic anemia
2.Role of bone marrow trephine biopsy as a diagnostic tool
3.Preparation, storage, indications and utility of platelet transfusions
4.Lab diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma
5.Enumerate transfusion transmitted disease and relevance of donor screening test.
6.Congenital aplastic anemia
7.Stem cell transplantation
8.Von- Williebrand’s disease
9.Lab diagnosis of auti-immune hemolytic anemia
10Megaloblastic anemia
 
Paper III
1.Cell block preparation and diagnostic use
2. HLA detection and its applications
3. Lab diagnosis of acute pancreatitis
4. Markers of testicular tumors
5. Role of cytogenetics in prenatal diagnosis
6. Biological waste disposal and its significance
7. Role of cytology in hormone replacement therapy
8.  FISH
9.  Urinary cytology in renal rejection
10. Bronchio-alveolar lavage in detection of occupational lung disease
 
Paper IV
 
1. Write in brief about etiology, pathogenesis, morphology and clinical features of shock                      
2. Mechanisms of autoimmune disease with role of ANA in diagnosis


Note in the 2003 IV paper they asked only 2 long questions. But now they keep the pattern same for all papers i.e. 10 short answer questions each for 10 marks.

       You can get few of the papers at,

http://www.natboard.edu.in/notice_for_dnb_candidates/PATHOLOGY.pdf

                 I will be adding as many papers as I can get. If someone have the recent papers they are welcome to add them.

Something Regarding Books

          As you know there are lot of books so we always get confused which is better,which to use and which not to. There is no concept like  'Good or Bad Book'. Every book is 'Good ' in it's own way. It's just depends on what material you want from the book at what time. Once you get to know the book more and more, you start liking it. So it is individual preference for each book. You should go through the contents and decide which one you like and which you can easily cover during exam period. I would like to list all the books which were  helpful for my DNB theory and practical examinations.

1.Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease
2.Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods
3.Sternberg's Diagnostic Surgical Pathology
4.Rosai and Ackerman's Surgical Pathology
5.Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology by Orell
6.Koss' Diagnostic Cytology And Its Histopathologic Bases
7.Comprehensive Cytopathology-Bibbo
8.The Bethesda System for Reporting Cervical Cytology
9.Enzinger and Weiss's Soft Tissue Tumors
10.Postgraduate Haematology- Hoffbrand.
11.Wintrobe's Clinical Hematology
12.W.H.O.Manual of Blood Banking
13.WHO Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissue
14.Lever's Histopathology of the Skin
15.Recent Advances in pathology No. 18 onwards.
16.Handbook of Autopsy Practice
17.An Approch to Immunohistochemical evaluation of common tumors- By Tata Memorial Hospital
18.Theory and Practice of Histological Techniques- Bancroft.

               Some of above mentioned books are reference books and some are must read books. You should take help of these books to plan answers of the sample questions and keep your answer key ready.

               I would also like to add  link for Pathology e-books by Dr. PaCiFiC. It is excellent collection of approx. 250 ebooks related to pathology and microbiology at one site...
which is too good and helps a lot because it is not possible to buy every book
http://epathology.blogspot.com/
So Happy reading....

Theory Examination Preparation

In the DNB theory examination you have to get atleast 50% marks to pass and to get a chance to appear in practical exams.

There are ten short structured questions in each theory  paper. And there are 4 theory papers each of 100 marks and 3 hours duration for each paper.

So you will get 15-18 minutes to attempt each question. The four papers will be as bellow,

1.Systemic Pathology
2.Hematopathology
3.Cytopathology,Clinical Pathology and Recent advances.
4.General Pathology.

This is a arbitary distrubution and there might be overlap of questions in one another.

As I mentioned you will get only 15-18 minutes to solve one question so you must read the question carefully and focus on the specific aspects asked. Then plan your answer and write for that. Apart from this a good presentation is a important aspect you must focus on. I am including few tips for good presentation.

1.Good handwriting
2.Keep margins -Upper, Lower, Right, Left side of the paper
3.Mention Question number and question
4.Letter size should be medium and also spacing between words should be equal
5.Using bullets, flow diagrams
6.One or two issues in one paragraph
7.Underlying important key points/ sentences etc
8.Organization of the contents in seqencial manner
9.Use of the digrams when required.

When you do not have much time in examination for some questions it is better to highlight key points, or draw flow diagrams or diagrams writing key points in bullet form or putting key points in boxes or underlining these.The examiner looks for key points in your answer and if you have covered these you will get marks irrespective to the number of pages you have attempted.

By referring to the sample questions you develop answer plan for attempting these questions
You should  maintain a notebook for each paper where you should write your answer plan for these questions.So that you can carry it along with you and can revise the answers whenever you want.

Sample Questions

I remember all the days during my 12th examination how I use to study for the boards as well as for the enterence examination. The same approch is important while preparing for D.N.B Pathology. The theory and the practicals are two main enemies which we have to attack. For boards we use to study old question papers the same way we have to go through the old question papers because nearly 20-30% questions will be repeated in the D.N.B theory papers. So if you study all the questions from past year papers then it will be helpful for theory exams.

So to start with  I will be giving some sample questions which are given on http://www.natbord.edu/ also. They are not divided paperwise but will give idea about the formating of the questions.

Pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

Microsatellite instability in hereditary non polyposis colon carcinoma

Non alcoholic steatohepatitis

Neuroendocrine lesions of lung

Role of immunophenotyping in carcinoma prostate

Tumor types and molecular pathogenesis of renal cell carcinoma

Pathogenesis of CNS involvement in HIV

Premalignant conditions of breast

Inflammatory myopathies

Autoimmune pancreatitis

 Immune mediated hemolytic anaemias

Recent concepts of iron absorption

Stem cell collection

Acquired sideroblastic anemia

Platelet antibodies

Role of morphology and markers in differentiating chronic lymphoproliferative disorders.

Molecular basis and morphology of AML-M3

Lab diagnosis of Von -willebrand’s disease

Role of immunofluorescence in diagnosis of bullous lesions of skin

Prognostic markers of ALL

Technique and interpretation of FNAC of prostate

Cytology of nipple discharge in breast lesions

PAPNET System

Urine examination in diagnosis of tuberculosis

Recent advances in diagnosis of tuberculosis

Microwave tissue processing

Interpretation of histograms in hematology cell counter reports

Bronchoalveolar lavage in diagnosis of non-neoplastic lesions of lung

Serological markers in diagnosis of “Collagen disorders”

Role of FISH in pathology

T cell receptor gene and Lymphoproliferative disorders

Pathogenesis of cerebral malaria

Role of oxygen radicals in inflammation

Chromosomal breakage syndrome

HLA and Organ transplantation

Pre cancereous colorectal epithelial polyps

Immunity in leprosy

Fabry’s disease

Pathophysiology of chronic renal failure

DNA ploidy analysis


If anybody have the recent years D.N.B. papers they are welcome to post them here so it will be helpful for students who are preparing for theory examinations.